Glengarry

Glengarry is a rural village 9 km north of Traralgon, Gippsland, on the road to Toongabbie and Heyfield.

It is on relatively flat terrain near the Latrobe River and its wetlands were part of a pastoral run. Farm selections started in the early 1870s when the area was known as Toongabbie South. A school, ‘Toongabbie South’, opened in 1872. In 1883 a railway from Traralgon to Heyfield opened; the stopping place at Glengarry was named Latrobe for about a year, when Glengarry became the permanent name. It appears that the name had been bestowed on the area by Angus McMillan, an early explorer of Gippsland.

By the end of the 1880s there were the Commercial (1885), Shamrock and Railway hotels, a mechanics’ institute (1886) and a primary school (1888). A cooperative creamery (1890) grew into a dairy factory which expanded and operated until 1953. Glengarry was described in 1903 in the Australian handbook:

Drainage works produced improved pastures for dairying.

The railway closed in 1986 but the station has survived as a craft outlet. The 67 km Gippland Plains Rail Trail included a section joining Glengarry with Traralgon (2014). Glengarry has become an ‘outer suburb’ of Traralgon. It has Anglican, Catholic and Uniting churches, a recreation reserve, the Commercial hotel and a public hall (1929). The Narkoojee Winery at Glengarry was planted in 1980 and received high praise from wine critic James Halliday in 2012.

The Glengarry primary school had 168 pupils in 2014.

The census populations have been: